Speedwell

“The Australian brand Speedwell had its beginnings with Charles Bennett who was an accomplished bike racer on pennyfathings and the Inter-colonial

Champion of Australia in the days before Australia existed as a nation. In 1882 he first started to import and sell pennyfarthings from Britain. In the early days of the twentieth century he began to manufacture bikes under the Speedwell brand name. Within the next few years Speedwell became the best known bicycle brand in New South Wales.”

“Speedwell was primarily a mass market manufacturer of bicycles. At the top of their range though were high quality racing machines.”

“The most famous rider of Speedwell bikes was ‘Dunc’ Gray who won Australia’s first cycling Gold Medal in the 1000m time trail at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games. The bike that he rode to the Gold medal is now on display at the “Dunc” Gray Velodrome in Sydney Australia. The venue for the Sydney 2000 Olympic track cycling events.”